Ashley Massaro (DOB: 5/26/79) My Name Is Ashley Massaro and I Am a Plaintiff in the Lawsuit, Laurinaitis Et
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To: Hon. Vanessa Bryant Affidavit of Ashley Massaro (DOB: 5/26/79) My name is Ashley Massaro and I am a plaintiff in the lawsuit, Laurinaitis et. al. v. WWE et. al., pending before you. This affidavit is signed and sworn under the penalties of perjury. I am making this statement freely and voluntarily. I have read and understood everything written in this statement. The facts, names, dates and information in this statement are made to the best of my recollection. WWE Career: 2005 On August 15, 2005, after weeks of competition on air LIVE on Monday Night RAW, I won the 2005 RAW Diva Search, which the WWE had represented would entitle me to $250,000 in prize money and a one-year contract with the WWE. I continued to wrestle for the WWE until July of 2008. I did not wrestle for any other entity before or after my time with the WWE. Upon winning the competition, I was informed that I could choose to accept the $250,000 prize money, and rather than work for WWE as a wrestler, serve as the “face” of the women’s division. I accepted this offer. It was my understanding that I would receive the full $250,000 and would not be required to wrestle but would work for WWE in a spokesmodel capacity for one year. I was given a contract by John Laurinaitis, which I no longer have a copy of, and signed it. After I signed the contract, Vince McMahon insisted that I had been “represented” by an individual named “Rich” in Marina Del Ray, CA, and tried to force me to pay him 20% of the $250,000. This individual had never represented me so I refused – which almost resulted in me losing my contract. This was my introduction to the coercive and unscrupulous tactics employed by the WWE to take advantage of its performers. I was classified by WWE as an independent contractor rather than an employee. I still have copies of payment records. Despite WWE’s classification of me as an independent contractor, I was obligated to perform at shows four to five days every weeK. At the time, I didn’t really understand the difference the significance of this distinction. Not only was the requirement that I perform 4-5 days a week inconsistent 1 with my independent contractor status, but it came a shock to me because I was specifically told I would not have to wrestle and would serve as the “face of the women’s division. However, one week from the day I won the competition, I was thrown into a wrestling match and forced to perform in a wrestling match. I had literally no wrestling training at the time and I did not know how to safely execute any moves or be on the receiving end of any moves. As a result of being immediately thrown into a grueling schedule of performing at shows four to five days weeK with no training, I immediately began sustaining constant inJuries. In my first month with WWE, I had a match with a veteran WWE female wrestler at a house show. She performed a move on me called a back-breaker. I had an expectation at the time that if she intended to perform such a move in a match, she would have taken me aside beforehand to show me how to do the move properly as she was aware I had no training and was expected to learn along the way. However, she not only neglected to teach me how to perform the move, but she worked me stiff (which means she was being particularly rough) because I was new. As a result, my back was slammed directly into her knee, and I sustained a severe back inJury. During my second week with the WWE, I asked Stephanie McMahon if I could receive wrestling training. Typically, this would have required me to attend WWE’s Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) school in Louisville, Kentucky. Stephanie said no, because I would be off TV and I would lose my fan base, and I would lose my spot and the WWE would not give it back to me. The reason for this was that I had been fortunate enough to develop a strong fan base while participating in the Diva Search competition. This however was a double-edged sword. Since I was popular with fans and generating higher ratings and profits for the WWE, WWE would not allow me to take any time to actually learn how to wrestle. During my time wrestling for the WWE, I sustained multiple concussions and did not receive appropriate (or in many cases any) treatment for my inJuries. As an example, shortly after I started performing for WWE, on or around September 5, 2005, I had a match with Torrie Wilson, and while rehearsing for our match, she performed a move on me known as the neck-breaker. Again, I did not 2 know how to safely be on the receiving end of this move, and as a result, I was knocked unconscious for five minutes. I received no treatment for the concussion, and the only person to even say anything to me about it was Trish Stratus, who advised me to “shake it off.” She was trying to help and gave me this advice because she knew from experience that I would get in trouble if I spoke up. The only choice I felt I had was to ask that this move be left out of the match. My request was not well received, but was granted, and then immediately after, I had to perform in the match in the live show. After this incident, which was around my third week of working for WWE, I approached Stephanie McMahon again about my need to receive training. I asked if I could train on my own in the 2 days per week that I had off from working for the WWE in Deer Park, NY, where I am from. She said no. I was terrified that I would keep getting inJured I would end up dead or permanently disabled, so I started training on my own anyway during the two days per week that I was not performing in shows. Stephanie found out soon after, and told me I had to stop. She said that the WWE didn’t know anything about the gym where I was training and it could create a liability for the WWE and if I got hurt training, I wouldn’t be able to perform. At the time, I didn’t understand the concept that I was classified as an independent contractor, and would have been within my rights to continue to train on my days off, so I acquiesced and stopped training. I wish now that I had been aware of my rights and continued training, as I likely could have prevented at least some of the inJuries I was about to suffer. Aside from numerous concussions, I received a multitude of other inJuries as a result of WWE’s failure to properly train me or provide proper treatment for my inJuries. For example, I suffered a hairline fracture in my spine and sustained numerous back inJuries, in addition to the one described above, and ultimately was diagnosed with herniated discs in C4 and C5 of my vertebrae. WWE Career: 2006 An injury that haunts me to this day occurred on February 20, 2006, when I was inJured in the ring in the Woman’s Battle Royal. I suffered a large fracture that went around my leg bone twice and a piece of bone became loose. On February 3 22, 2006, I had to undergo surgery to have a five-inch mental plate, eight screws, and staples placed in my leg. My leg was then placed in a cast and I clearly should not have been performing while I recovered from this surgery. However, a storyline was written very shortly after where Mickie James was to kidnap me and I was supposed to fall out of a chair during a match so the camera would have a better angle to capture a match between Mickie James and Trish Stratus. Including me in this storyline and requiring me to perform in the ring was entirely inappropriate as my leg was protected for a reason and I should not have been forced to intentionally fall out of a chair. And, I should not have been forced to remain in a spot where I was likely to get hit or have someone fall on me (which happened – Trish fell on top of me accidentally during the match), causing further damage to my already severely inJured leg, which, at the time, was still in a cast from my most recent inJury. I required revisionary surgeries stemming from this inJury in 2008. In addition, in 2010, I required a related revisionary surgery on my ankle. A few months after fracturing my leg, in the summer of 2006, I shattered my knuckle of my right hand in a match against Kristal. Dr. Rios treated me; my hand was put in a cast; which he said had to remain on for about four weeks. A week or two later, Vince McMahon wanted me to perform in a show. He knew that my cast was not supposed to come off for at least a couple more weeks but did not care. He ordered the cast sawed off my hand backstage by WWE crew so that I could perform in a match.